La Vinoteca Torres Barcelona – restaurant and Spanish wine paradise

Bodegas Torres is a major Spanish wine producer, founded in 1870.  La Vinoteca Torres Barcelona is a wine bar and restaurant that is a joint project by them and a restaurant group, that ” has resulted in a one-of-a-kind culinary and oenology offering”.  La Vinotheca Torres seems like a place for them to showcase their wide range of wines to the world.  The long wine menu listed the wines produced by Bodegas Torres.  Better still, almost all of them were available by the glass.   With 30 or more types available, this is certainly a Spanish wine paradise for anyone interested in the subject.

La Vinoteca Torres is located along the upper stretch of  Passeig de Gràcia, the glamourous shopping avenue in Barcelona, near the Gaudi buildings of Casa Milà ‘La Pedrera’ and Casa Batlló.  It looks like a wine shop at the entrance, with ceiling height shelves of wines greeting visitors. Immediately inside is the wine bar and restaurant that is dark and trendy.   It is a pleasant place to have a drink or a light snack.  If the intent is to have formal meal, the dining room at the upper place is an even better location.  Dining among bottles of wine on display and at tables with crisp white linen beats the casual atmosphere downstairs.

La Vinoteca Torres Menu

Here are pictures of the La Vinoteca Torres menu and some pages from the extensive wine list.  Apart from the usual red, white and rose groups, the wines were categorised into sections  – “welcome”, “tradition”, “discovery”, “exceptional” and “anthology” collections.  Prices also move up in the same order.

By comparison, the food menu was quite short and contained the usual food items.  We had more fun with the wine list. In the end we ended with solely seafood dishes and accordingly made a random selection of white wines from across the various categories. The best of which was the Milmanda from the Anthology of Miguel Torres section.  The single vineyard wine was placed third in a 1989 blind tasting of world chardonnay wines (see Torres website).   It tasted like a good white Burgundy. At 14€ a glass, it was very reasonable.

For starters we had some anchovies with olive oil and bread (10€).  This went well with the fresh, crisp taste of the Jean Leon chardonnay.

The grilled octopus (20€) was a hearty dish of well cooked octopus tentacles.  Tender and juicy, it was seafood of quality and expertly prepared.

Similarly, the baked fish of the day (21€) was a dish of cod. It was presented simply with no attempt to make it dramatic.  We liked the straight forward presentation of both main courses. Just enough cooking to let the quality of the produce shine through without any fancy trimming or sauces.

We had half expected the food at the La Vinoteca Torres to be a bridesmaid for the wines, but the kitchen part of this wine bar – restaurant combination was as impressive as the oenology department.

Ratings:

Food: 5

Service : 4

Value: 4

Atmosphere: 5

Overall Rating: 5 TOPs 

La Vinoteca Torres

Passeig de Gràcia, 78
08008 Barcelona.

Open:Monday to Sunday, 12 noon to 1 am.